129 years ago, an absurd anti-car law was abolished.

On 14 November 1896, the United Kingdom repealed an absurd law that was hindering the rise of the automobile and opened the way to an industrial revolution.

That day, the UK ended the Red Flag Act, a law that literally required a man to walk in front of every motorized vehicle carrying a red flag. The stated aim, in the mid-19th century, was to protect road users from these new ‘road locomotives.’ But in practice, this regulation froze progress for decades.

The origin of the statute dates back to the era of the first steam-powered machines traveling on roads. Distrust, combined with the strong influence of carriage and railway lobbies, resulted in a series of increasingly restrictive laws. The most absurd of these required a pedestrian to precede every motorized vehicle to announce its arrival. At a time when the automobile was trying to emerge, this requirement effectively nullified its purpose: to allow autonomous travel that was faster and more efficient than existing means.

The true beginning of automotive freedom

The repeal of the Red Flag Act was not just symbolic. It also raised the maximum permitted speed from 4 km/h in towns to nearly 22 km/h. Immediately, British motoring pioneers celebrated this emancipation with a drive from London to Brighton, which has since become a tradition. But above all, this legislative change freed an area of innovation that had been harshly restricted for more than thirty years.

This page of history reminds us how a poorly calibrated regulation can stifle an emerging technology. The Red Flag Act did not arise from a desire to study or regulate uncertain progress: it was mainly aimed at protecting established industries and maintaining a certain social order. The result: the automobile fell behind in the United Kingdom, while in France, Germany and the United States, engineers experimented freely and advanced rapidly.

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• 14/11/2025 17:08

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Today, as the industry undergoes a comparable transformation – electrification, autonomous driving, robotaxis, onboard AI – the example of the Red Flag Act resonates strongly. It shows that a law can support innovation… or slow it down until it is immobilized. The story of the automobile on 14 November 1896 is a reminder that regulatory caution should never be confused with a fear of change.

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